THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS AT THE PORT HAS REDUCED 75% – FINANCE MINISTER

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has said, the cost of doing business at the port has reduced by seventy five percent (75%) soon after the introduction of the paperless system.

He said, one does not need to spend more days in clearing goods from the port.

Appearing before Parliament on Wednesday, the minister made it clear to the house that, it must not take anyone beyond four working days to clear his or her goods once genuine documents and procedures have been followed.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta was answering a question filed by the Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza Governs on whether the introduction of the ‘paperless port’ system has increased the cost of doing business or otherwise.

The minister said the system has been created efficiency and have been helpful.

The paperless policy was aimed at improving the clearance procedures at the Ports of Ghana by eliminating delays. This was also to improve ports efficiency for accelerated national development.

It was the expectation that goods should be cleared from the Ports within 4 hours.

Secondly, the removal of customs barriers on the transit corridors was to ensure free flow of goods from the Ports of Ghana to transit countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Until the directive was implemented, stakeholders had complained bitterly on the high number of customs barriers on Ghana’s corridor which was said to be impeding the transportation of goods to their destinations.

The directive was also introduced to help
the mandatory joint inspection at the Ports to reduce the multiplicity of regulatory agencies who conduct inspections at the Ports and compel them to conduct their inspections jointly.